


The Lie

by delicatelyglitterywriter



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: DW Exchange 2020, Gen, Humor, Minecraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:06:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25297369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicatelyglitterywriter/pseuds/delicatelyglitterywriter
Summary: The Master kidnaps Jo (AGAIN) and sticks her in the Doctor's Minecraft game. Shenanigans ensue.
Relationships: Jo Grant & The Master (Delgado), Third Doctor & Jo Grant
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12
Collections: DW Exchange 2020





	The Lie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LieutenantSaavik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LieutenantSaavik/gifts).



As far as bad days went, Jo Grant would say this one was perfectly crummy indeed. It was, of course, the Master’s fault, as it always was. Jo was getting pretty fed up with him showing his face where it wasn’t wanted - that is to say, she was tired of him popping up every few weeks. She wondered why he couldn’t find a more productive hobby than irritating the Doctor and herself with his plans for world domination; something like knitting, or writing children’s books, or making sock puppets and then making funny videos with said puppets.

But no. It seemed he was too one-minded to think of anything of the sort.

Jo sighs to herself, watching as the Master plugs a few things into a machine that reminds Jo of one of those new Prime Computers. She doesn’t know what it’s for, but knowing the Master, it’s nothing good. It doesn’t take long before the machine is ready for...well, whatever its intended purpose is, and he picks up something that looks like a necklace - though Jo thinks it might be something a tad more complex than a necklace - and steps over to her. She reflexively steps back.

“What are you doing?” she demands, her eyes flicking back and forth between the necklace and the Master. “What is that thing? Why do you want me to wear it?”

“Relax, Miss Grant,” the Master says in a tone that Jo thinks is meant to be soothing, but being the Master, it’s far from. “It’s just a necklace.”

Jo knows he’s lying, but she doesn’t know enough to accuse him, so instead she just takes another step backwards.

“What’s it for?”

The Master chuckles, seemingly amused. “It’s a necklace, Miss Grant. It exists to be worn as an accessory.”

“I’m not stupid, I know what necklaces are for,” Jo snaps. “What I mean is: what will it do to me? You would never give me something so pretty out of goodwill.”

“Miss Grant, you wound me,” the Master mourns - or, more accurately, says in a tone that’s as close as he can get to mourning. He’s a very undramatic man as far as emotions go, and the closest Jo’s ever seen him get to any kind of sadness was three weeks ago, when the Doctor took his last sandwich.

“Is that what you intend to do with me?” Jo questions. “Wound me?”

“Oh, no, Miss Grant,” the Master says sincerely. Jo thinks it’s the sincerest she’s ever heard him. “I could never wound such a fine young lady such as yourself.”

The Master smiles warmly, which Jo returns with a scowl. He politely takes a half step back, grasping the necklace in one hand so he could hold the other up in a placating gesture. Jo accepts the sort-of half-apology and lets her scowl drop.

“Then why kidnap me?”

The Master waves his hand dismissively. “Just a part of another day’s work.”

“Of creating problems for the Doctor, you mean.”

“That’s hardly fair, Miss Grant,” the Master tsks, and if she didn’t know better, she’d have sworn she saw a pout. “I simply...have some not-fully-lawful hobbies. It’s not _my_ fault that the Doctor sticks his nose in places it doesn’t belong.”

“Not fully moral, you mean,” Jo shoots back. “The law has nothing to do with your despicable ‘hobbies’!”

The Master raises his eyebrows, impressed. “A wonderfully concise summary of the divide between morality and law, Miss Grant. Well done.”

“Oh, no, don’t go changing the subject on me!” Jo says harshly, planting her hands on her hips. She doesn’t care if he just complimented her, he was still changing the subject. “Tell me what that necklace is and what it will do to me!”

The Master sighs. “Very well. It’s simply a necklace with a few adjustments made to it. It will only incapacitate you for a little while; not cause any lasting damage. Now, please, do just put it on; I really would hate to use force on such a lovely lady.”

“Oh, to hell with your sweet words,” Jo mutters crossly, snatching the necklace off of him. “You’d think you actually cared about me.”

“You’re important to the Doctor, and that’s enough,” the Master says enigmatically. Jo doesn’t even _bother_ trying to decipher that one, instead lifting the necklace up to fasten it behind her neck. She fumbles with the clasp a little.

“Here let me-”

“I’m quite capable of doing it myself,” Jo insists crossly, taking another half-step back from him. “It’s not like I’ve never done this before.”

“Of course not.”

Jo feels the two parts connect, and she lets go at the same time she gets a strange, tingling sensation from her head to her toes and the world starts to go fuzzy. She stumbles, reflexively reaching out to steady herself. Following the fuzziness, her world begins to turn, well, blocky for lack of a better word. She looks around wildly as the Master, the machine, and the world she _was_ in disappear, and blocks of grass and dirt begin to appear around her. She looks around widely as her vision settles.

“Where _am_ I?”

She looks down at herself, to make sure she hasn’t sustained any damage, and lets out a short scream when she sees that her body has _also_ become blocky. She no longer has any hands, only rectangular prisms for arms. Her clothes are the same, only in what appears to be 2 dimensional, and straight out of a video game. She assumes she still has the necklace, but with no fingers, she can’t unclasp it. 

She calls out to the Master in much the same way characters in dramatic films call out to God, face turned skywards.

“Where am I?!” she demands loudly. “What have you done to me?!”

* * *

The Doctor was sulking.

Of course, _he_ didn’t call it sulking. He called it “giving my brain a rest; the subconscious works wonders with problem solving when you’re not actively thinking about it”. The Brigadier hadn’t believed him - of course he wouldn’t, the Doctor thinks bitterly - and the Doctor had shut himself inside the TARDIS.

Presently, he’s attempting to distract himself with one of his secret hobbies: Minecraft. He might even go so far as to call it a guilty pleasure. That is, if he felt any guilt in playing it, which he didn’t.

He quietly sings some tune about building he learned on some distant world - the lyrics of which he mumbles under his breath, and are thus not possible to transcribe, and would read as ‘hmmm dngimm hmmrimmy’ and ‘mmmunmkimm’ and other such nonsense - as he goes about building. 

He’s on his way to find more spruce wood for the new room for his house, when he comes across a brand new NPC; one he’s never seen before. This isn’t unusual, all the NPCs are unique, in their own way, but this one looks different. This one looks like it’s _supposed_ to be another player’s character, but he’s not on a shared server.

The NPC turns, and he’s struck by how much it looks like Jo, if Jo was a Minecraft character. She’s even wearing what he last saw her in - a light purple dress, with some purple knee-high boots to match, and a throw-over that he would call ‘dark peach’ if he were interested in specific shades of colour, which he wasn’t. Not at the moment, anyway.

The NPC gesticulates wildly upon seeing him, and he frowns.

“That’s not right,” he murmurs to himself. 

He pauses the game and does some genius hacking stuff that most humans wouldn’t understand, so I shan’t bother to explain, to find out what’s up with the NPC. What he finds is that the NPC is an anomaly; an addition made to the game by someone who is neither him, nor the game developers. He considers deleting the NPC, but it looks so much like Jo that he can’t bring himself to. Then, in another stroke of genius - he tends to have a lot of those - he decides to recode the game a little so he can talk to the NPC. It’s a simple procedure, to him anyway, most people wouldn’t understand it.

“Hello there,” he greets the NPC. Jo’s voice responds.

“Oh, Doctor! It _is_ you! But how did you get in here? Where _is_ here?”

“Jo? That’s really you?”

“Of course it is,” she says with a small giggle. “Don’t be silly.”

“But, Jo, this is a game! How did you get inside!”

“A game?” Jo repeats, her voice a mixture of shocked and scared. “But...But...But…”

“Deep breath, Jo,” the Doctor soothes. “You’re perfectly safe. At least, I assume you are. That’s it. Now, tell me how you got in here.”

“Well, I was with the Master, you see-”

“The Master,” the Doctor sighs. “I should have figured. He kidnapped you again?”

“Yes,” Jo says in a pouty tone. “We were in some sort of...computer lab somewhere, with a big computer that looked like those new Prime Computers. Remember, the ones we heard about last week?”

“Prime Computers? But they’re the newest of new! Even UNIT doesn’t have one yet!”

“I know, I think it had to be one of their factories or something. Anyway, he made me put this necklace on and it was sort of like...oh, I don’t even know how to describe it. The world went fuzzy, then blocky, and then I was here.”

“I see,” the Doctor says, looking at the necklace she’s wearing. It looks like a standard accessory, and he can’t take it off her to get a closer look at it. Not to mention it might not even be _safe_ to take it off while Jo was in the game.

“Doctor, you said this was a game. What game is it?”

“Minecraft.”

“Minecraft? What’s that?”

“A 21st century game to play on computers,” the Doctor explains. “I downloaded it onto one of the TARDIS’ computers last time I was there. Essentially, you mine, and you craft, hence the name of the game.”

“I see,” Jo says, though both she and the Doctor know that she, in fact, does _not_ see. The Doctor, however, chooses not to comment on it. There’s a pause, and then Jo speaks again. “But if I’m in the game, how are you?”

“What you’re seeing is my avatar,” the Doctor explains. “The character I created in order to play the game, you see. I’m not actually in the game as you are; I’m controlling this avatar you see from my TARDIS. You, however, actually exist inside the game. Do you follow?”

“I think so,” Jo says thoughtfully, speaking slowly. “I’ve been sucked into the game, but you’re playing it in your TARDIS.”

“Exactly right,” the Doctor says, grinning. 

“But why are you playing a game in your TARDIS? Shouldn’t you be working on some science-y gadget-y thing?”

“Not just now,” the Doctor says, trying really hard to not sound sulky. “I just need a bit of a break from work, that’s all.”

“I see.” He can tell Jo doesn’t believe him, but neither of them make mention of it. “So, this game, how do I get out? Do I have to beat it or something?”

“Unfortunately, Minecraft isn’t a quest-based game,” the Doctor explains. “So there is no game _to_ beat. You can still play, but you’ll be stuck here until I can get to the Master and get you out.”

“Oh.” Jo sounds like she might cry.

“It’s alright, Jo,” the Doctor assures her. “It’s quite safe. Well, aside from when it’s nighttime; the game has creatures that try to kill you, and you’re best to stay indoors during that time, unless you feel like trying to kill them. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the die-and-respawn rule applies to you, so you’re best to stay inside when the game turns to night.”

“Oh. I see. But I don’t have a house.”

“No,” the Doctor agrees. “But I do. You’re more than welcome to stay there until I can get you out.”

“Oh, thank you, Doctor!” Jo says, much happier now. The Doctor moves his character towards his house.

“Of course. Follow me.”

Jo follows the Doctor, across a wide open plain and over a small hill, and gasps when his house comes into view.

“You built _that_?”

“Yes.”

“But it’s _massive_!” Jo marvels.

“Yes, well, I’ve had the game for a while. Come on, I’ll show you around. But do try not to break anything.”

“Okay.”

Jo lets the Doctor show her around, and she’s suitably impressed. They make it back down to the front room and Jo sighs.

“It’s lovely, Doctor. Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“It’s the safest place for you to be.”

Jo smiles, or she would if her video game face let her. A few beats pass before Jo speaks again.

“Doctor, why did I get trapped in your computer?”

“What?”

“Your computer,” Jo repeats. “If this is a computer game, I could have been sucked into any computer. Why yours?”

The Doctor pauses, thinking. 

“I’m not sure,” he says honestly. “Perhaps the Master rigged the necklace up to drop you in my Minecraft game specifically, or maybe the TARDIS saw what was happening and intervened to make sure you could be in mine, or perhaps it was pure chance.”

Jo hums. “Well, whatever the reason, I’m glad it was your game I’m stuck in.”

The Doctor smiles. “Yes, well, I’ll log off and leave you, to find the Master and rescue you. Feel free to play, but remember: stay indoors at night and do try not to break anything in the house.”

“Okay,” Jo giggles, and the Doctor moves to log off. “Wait, Doctor, you said ‘log off’. What’s ‘log o-’”

The end of her sentence is lost as the Doctor closes the game. He sighs.

“I’ll explain later, Jo.”

* * *

Jo’s not sure how long it takes in Earth Time for the Doctor to find the Master, but in Minecraft Time, it’s three weeks. The following few hundred words are taken directly from the journal Jo kept during those three weeks, written in a book she found in one of the many chests the Doctor has in his Minecraft house.

> **Day 1**
> 
> I found this book while digging around in the Doctor’s chests. He has so many in this house! I suppose you have to have lots of chests when you’ve collected so many things. But some of the stuff he has! I didn’t think it was possible for a game to have so many things to collect up! There’s wool, and dirt, and sand, and wood (lots of wood!) and weapons, and pickaxes, and axes, and sandstone, and food, and water buckets, and buckets full of lava, and gold, and diamond, and emerald, and some other precious blocks of things that I don’t know the names of, and some other blocks I don’t recognise! It’s all very exciting! I hope he doesn’t mind me using some of his stuff.
> 
> **Day 9**
> 
> Trust me to start a journal and then forget to write in it for more than a week! But I do have good reason! 
> 
> I went back to the place where I had entered the game - the place with all the buildings and little people there to explore. The other people there are nice enough, but they honestly creep me out a little. They have no personalities; they’re kind of like clones of each other, and they remind me a bit of autons. But they don’t ever try to kill me, so I suppose I can trust them. I did manage to trade with a few while I was there, so I guess they’re alright.
> 
> So, I was there, and then I noticed the sun - I still can’t get over the fact that it’s a block! A block for a sun! - getting low, and so I thought I should try to get back to the Doctor’s house. So I set out, but wasn’t fast enough, and I got attacked by a zombie!! I had to run back to the safety of one of the Not Auton People’s houses and seek shelter there until the night was over. After that, I decided to stay there until I’d finished exploring, and I learned how to heal myself by eating, so I suppose that’s a good thing to come from all of this.
> 
> But I do not think I will be going out at night again.
> 
> **Day 10**
> 
> I explored the area around the Doctor’s house today. I found his farm. He has a lot of sheep. And I mean a LOT. I think I counted upwards of 100, but it’s difficult to tell. And the sheep are all different colours, too! Lots are white, but some are black, and there are blue sheep, green sheep, grey sheep, red sheep, light blue sheep, pink sheep, purple sheep, and even yellow sheep! I wish sheep on Earth came in so many different colours; that would be so fun!! I miss Earth. I hope the Doctor is able to get me out soon.
> 
> **Day 11**
> 
> I didn’t finish yesterday’s journal because I got too sad thinking about Earth, but here are some of the other things I found on the Doctor’s farm:
> 
>   * Chickens. Lots of chickens.
>   * Cows
>   * Horses
>   * A few birds
>   * Bees!! The bees are so very cute! Very large, but very cute.
>   * Pigs
>   * Something I think is a beehive. I ate some of the stuff dripping out of it and it tasted like honey, so I’m pretty sure it’s a beehive for the bees
> 

> 
> I also found holes in the ground leading to caves, but I couldn’t go down them because there was no safe path down, and it looks like a long fall. 
> 
> Today I explored a bit further and found the ocean, not too far from the Doctor’s house. It’s a proper ocean too, going on for as far as you can see!! The water feels like real water too, although I do wonder how much of that is because I’m a part of the game now. If I was still human and not really part of the game, would I be able to feel the water and interact with it the same way I do now? I know the answer is probably ‘no’, but it’s an interesting question to think about. 
> 
> I also found a door in the side of a mountain. I peeked inside and saw lots of stone, going downwards like a staircase. It was late when I found it, so I’ll have to investigate closer tomorrow.
> 
> **Day 12**
> 
> I went through the door today and went all the way down the steps. At the bottom of the steps, it opens into a wide and brightly lit cave. There are lots of torches. There’s lava, and water, and lots of stone, but also some stone blocks with shiny things in them. I think they may be the original blocks for the precious gems I found on the first day. I’ll have to figure out how to get them out and put them in the Doctor’s chests for him.
> 
> **Day 15**
> 
> I didn’t realise I spent 3 whole days in the mountain until I came up today and checked the Doctor’s calendar he has in his house. But I have good reason for spending so long in there! I discovered that the staircase and cave I found serve as a mine! You can mine for stones and the gems and stuff! That’s what I’ve spent the last three days doing. I borrowed the Doctor’s diamond pickaxe (I hope he doens’t mind!) and I mined a lot of stuff to get to the precious gems.
> 
> I expected it to be backbreaking work, but it’s not; it’s quite easy. I think it’s because I’m part of the game and don’t really have my human body right now and so I don’t get tired by work I’d usually find exhausting. I do wish the Doctor was here so I could ask him about how it all worked. I’d like to know how much of me is human and how much is block. 
> 
> Anyway, back to what I managed to collect:
> 
>   * Hundreds of bits of cobblestone
>   * Hundreds of bits of something called diorite
>   * 43 bits of red block
>   * 78 bits of coal
>   * 52 bits of iron
>   * 39 bits of blue block
>   * 16 bits of gold block
>   * 4 bits of emerald block
> 

> 
> I’m not sure how to turn them into the actual gems instead. I’ll have to have a look around tomorrow and see if I can figure it out.
> 
> **Day 16**
> 
> Success! I figured out that, to turn the gem blocks into the actual gems, you have to use the furnace. You put a bit of coal in the bottom and then the gem block on top and it melts down to create the gem. It’s a really cool and pretty process to watch, so I spent all day doing that. So now the Doctor has a lot more gems and redstone powder. 
> 
> **Day 17**
> 
> I found the manual for building things right before writing this entry. I will be experimenting with building things tomorrow.
> 
> **Day 18**
> 
> Building things is so much fun!! Today I’ve made:
> 
>   * Shears
>   * A crafting table
>   * A furnace
>   * Rail tracks
>   * A bed
>   * A chest
>   * A door
>   * Sticks
>   * A pumpkin with a torch inside, I’m not sure what they’re called
>   * Torches
>   * Trapdoors
>   * Wood planks
>   * An anvil
>   * A bucket
>   * An axe
>   * A fishing rod
>   * A pickaxe
>   * A shovel
>   * Some TNT
>   * A sword
>   * A bowl
>   * Bread (and other food; I learned how to cook in Minecraft today!!)
>   * A dispenser
>   * A lever
>   * A pressure plate
>   * Gem blocks (I found out you can put a bunch of gems together to make one big shiny block!)
>   * A tripwire
>   * A boat
>   * Fences and gates
>   * Glass
>   * Iron bars
>   * A ladder
>   * Sandstone and other things like that
>   * Andestine
>   * Stairs
>   * Books
>   * A bookshelf
>   * Some signs
> 

> 
> It’s a lot, but I’ve been very busy! It’s not like I have anything else to do. I hope the Doctor doesn’t mind having all this new stuff. Maybe I should put it all in one chest and label it ‘Chest of Stuff Jo Made’. 
> 
> **Day 19**
> 
> Today I learned how to catch fish and how to use a boat. There are so many different kinds of fish I found! Well, three or four different kinds, but it feels like a lot when you go fishing for the first time. I also saw sand bunnies for the first time. They’re really, really, really cute. I think I’d quite like to have one as a pet back on Earth.
> 
> **Day 20**
> 
> I feel like I’ve run out of things to do. I’ve explored as far as I can explore without being out at nighttime, and I don’t want to build anything in the Doctor’s game without his permission (the building manual thing didn’t count; that was just making materials for him to use), and I’m worried I’m becoming bored. 
> 
> **Day 21**
> 
> I didn’t do much today, except shear the Doctor’s sheep and bring all the wool inside. But I did have a terrible, terrible thought as I was shearing: what if the Doctor can’t ever get me out? What if I’m stuck here forever; doomed to live out my life as a Minecraft character? The Doctor said that this is an idle game; what if I never die and am stuck like this for all eternity? I know these are dark thoughts, but I can’t help but wonder what might happen if the Doctor can’t find a way to get me out. I hope he can, though. I don’t like being like this anymore. And I miss him. He hasn’t been on here since the first day when he showed me his house.

The journal stops after this entry. Fortunately, this is due to the Doctor finding the Master’s hideout and managing to reverse the process, bringing Jo back out into the real world. He quickly takes the necklace off Jo and tosses it to the side, catching her as she sways.

“Easy, Jo,” he soothes. 

“D-Doctor?”

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

The two share a smile, the Doctor affectionately nudging her cheek with his forefinger - their traditional post-rescue ‘I missed you’ ritual. For some reason unknown to mankind, the Master is present at Jo’s rescue. No one is fully certain what went on with the Doctor and the Master in the negotiations for Jo’s release, but for once, the Master is not sulking, nor grumbling, nor taking his chance to run away. He is instead sitting, calmly, in a nearby chair, watching it. 

“What took you so long?” she asks, trying really hard not to sound angry or upset. She fails, of course, because she _feels_ very angry and upset.

“Jo, you were only in there for 7 hours,” the Doctor reasons.

“Not for me!” Jo protests. “I was in there for three whole weeks! Three! 21 days!”

“Oh, yes, of course!” the Doctor says as if he’d just remembered something dreadfully important and felt very, very silly indeed for having forgotten. “Time works differently in there than out here. Days in there are shorter, and so there are more of them in there than there are out here.”

“Like Narnia?” Jo asks, briefly forgetting about her annoyance as the curiosity of the inner workings of time piques her interest. “Where a year can pass there, but no time here?”

“Something like that,” the Doctor agrees, knowing that the precise, scientific explanation would be too complicated for her - or any human, really - to understand. 

“No, not like that,” the Master says, chiming in for the first time since the conversation began. Of course, he said this just to be difficult. 

The Doctor gives him a look that says “I know you’re just trying to be difficult, now bugger off, won’t you? There’s a good chap”. Jo, likewise, gives the Master a look, but it’s one of anger and resentment.

“Why are you here?”

“This is my lab, Miss Grant.”

“Jo, please,” the Doctor intervenes, before Jo can retort. “The Master put you in that game to get to me, and we’ve worked something out, and you don’t need to be angry at him for being here. This is, indeed, his lab, and if anyone should be doing the leaving, it’s us.”

“Fine,” Jo huffs, heading for where she remembers the door is. “I don’t want to be here a _minute_ longer.”

The Doctor follows her, exchanging a final word with the Master, which is not recorded because it would make no sense without the context of the negotiation, which, as we have already established, was also not recorded. Outside, the Doctor and Jo get into Bessie and take off, heading for UNIT. The ride is silent, Jo quietly fuming and thinking things through. The Doctor, similarly, is thinking about things; mostly related to the negotiation. 

Jo’s the one to eventually break the silence, while they’re sitting at the traffic lights. When she speaks, she’s a lot calmer and more reasonable.

“Doctor?”

“Yes?”

“Back when you first left me in the game, you said you’d ‘log off’ and find the Master to get me out. What does ‘log off’ mean?”

The Doctor sighs. How on Earth was he supposed to explain the concept of ‘log off’ to someone who had never used a computer before, aside from perhaps pushing the odd button here and there? He thinks a minute. The light turns green. He pushes down on the accelerator.

“Well, it’s a computer term,” he begins. “You see, when computers become common household objects - and they will be, but don’t tell anyone I told you that - people will start coming up with words to describe various computer-related things…”


End file.
